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September 24, 2023

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

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One Day in September of 1861 by Paul Callahan

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September 12, 1861, began with the entire front page of the New York Herald dominated by a map that meticulously detailed the advance positions of the Confederate army along the Potomac in preparation for an attack upon the Nation’s Capitol. The headline read – Over Three Hundred Thousand Armed Men – Scene of the Coming Decisive Conflict. The Nation’s North was not caught off guard by this development, as they had been reading about the rebel forces’ impending attacks for weeks. 

A series of internationally published articles had detailed how the Maryland Legislature was cooperating with Confederate forces in that they would issue an ordinance of secession and simultaneously Confederate Generals Johnston and Beauregard would cross the Potomac to “liberate” Maryland and attack Washington from the flank. The internationally disseminated articles detailed how a rebel army had been amassing in Accomac on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and was to be led up the Delmarva by General Tench Tilghman of Talbot county who had been disposed of his commission by Governor Hicks that May.  

This force of rebels would be used to support both the Legislature’s secession and the attack upon Washington by acting as a blocking force to isolate Washington from reinforcements. At the commencement of the operation, Baltimore Mayor George W. Brown was to conduct a demonstration in Baltimore City as a tactical diversion to draw Union troops away from Washington. General Beauregard was assigned the attack upon Washington while General Johnston was to capture Rockville which was to be the rallying point for Maryland secessionists to join with Johnston’s forces.  The Maryland secessionists were to be armed with the guns of the Maryland militia that had been secretively hidden from the federal forces who had been searching for and confiscating the arms of Maryland all summer. If Beauregard did not require reinforcement for his attack upon the Capitol, Johnston was to continue to Baltimore to liberate that city. 

The rebel plans had been uncovered by the War Department weeks prior and preparations had been made to foil the secessionist’s plot. The Lincoln administration established “secret police” mainly consisting of Pinkerton Detective Agency personnel. These agents had infiltrated Baltimore, gathering intelligence and were ready to act. On September 11, Secretary of War Simon Cameron issued the order and the “modus operandi” was coordinated between Union Generals McClellan and Banks. Around midnight on September 12, the arrests began which included eleven members of the Maryland Legislature who resided in Baltimore, Baltimore Mayor George Brown and United States Congressman Henry May. 

Two editors of Baltimore’s “secessionist” papers, Thomas W. Hall, editor of The South and Frank Key Howard, editor of The Daily Exchange were also arrested. Frank Key Howard was the grandson of Francis Scott Key, the author of our national anthem and thought it an “odd and unpleasant coincidence” that he was imprisoned at Fort McHenry on the forty-seventh anniversary of when his grandfather wrote in praise about the “land of the free.”The arrests continued and culminated on September 17, when the Third Wisconsin regiment arrested members of the Legislature as they returned to the city of Frederick to continue their legislative session. 

Those who were not immediately captured went into hiding, leading to the Third Wisconsin surrounding the city and conducting house-to-house searches to capture the remaining secessionists. In all, 33 members of the Legislature were arrested which included members of the House and Senate’s administrative staff.  Many of those arrested joined Baltimore’s Police Chief, George P. Kane and the Baltimore Police Commissioners who had been arrested in June and were imprisoned at Fort Lafayette in New York harbor.  

The Northern Press immediately reported how these arrests “foiled” the Confederate attack plans against the Capitol in that they dared not cross the Potomac without the Maryland Legislature first issuing their secession ordinance. The Northern Press reported the discovery of ordinances of secession amongst the traitorous Legislative members and that other evidence was found revealing that their complicity in their cooperation with the rebel army and their intent to take Maryland out of the Union was without question.  A statement by President Lincoln was published in the Baltimore American, where the President asserted that due to “public safety” the grounds of the arrests cannot be made public at this time, but he assured the people of Maryland that “…in all cases the Government is in possession of tangible and unmistakable evidence, which will, when made public, be satisfactory to every loyal citizen.”

It has now been 162 years and that evidence has never been provided. There has been no ordinance of secession found, nor has it been shown that a rebel army had amassed in Accomac Virginia to be led by General Tilghman.  Research of military records reveals that the Confederate army did not have 200,000 men amassed along the Potomac and Union Generals had no concern that there was about to be an attack.  There has been no evidence that the Maryland Legislature was contemplating secession or were coordinating with the Confederate army in an attack upon the Capitol.  General Tilghman, Mayor Brown, Frank Key Howard, and numerous members of the Legislature all attested that there were no such secessionist activities and pointed to the Legislature’s Proclamation to the People of Maryland issued that April which proclaimed they had no “constitutional authority” to issue a secession ordinance.  All the aforementioned internationally disseminated reports, originating from Washington, are assessed as “fake news” designed to control national and world opinion. 

The U.S. Civil War was the first conflict where the confluence of two major technologies were used in the conduct of war.   By the start of the war, over fifty thousand miles of telegraph wire had been installed to instantly transmit information across the Nation.  With the advent of the steam-driven presses the costs to print newspapers greatly decreased.  These factors, combined with a literacy rate amongst voters that is close to our modern era, caused newspaper readership to expand exponentially.  

Modern historians such as Harold Holzer and Elizabeth Mitchel have uncovered President Lincoln’s compulsion in using the press to control public opinion and quoted Lincoln as stating “Public sentiment is everything, with it nothing can fail; against it nothing can succeed.  Holzer and Mitchel document how Lincoln secretly purchased a German newspaper to support his Presidential campaign and how he wrote “ghost articles” that either supported his candidacy or criticized his opponents. 

It is now discovered that the Third Wisconsin were specifically instructed to arrest only the members of the Maryland Legislature that had voted “yay” on what became known as the “Wallis Report,” and were ordered to find and destroy all copies.  The “Wallis Report” was named after Severn Teackle Wallis, the Chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Federal Relations.   The report and resolutions were passed by a vote of 54 – 13 and the names of each Legislative member were attached which recorded their vote.  The report was the Legislature’s protest against the constitutional violations committed by the Lincoln administration against the State of Maryland and her citizens and called for an immediate cessation of all hostilities between the beleaguered states. The intent was to take their protest and calls for peace directly to the American public, ordering 25,000 copies to be printed and distributed throughout the Nation.  

The majority of the Maryland Legislature desired peace and maintained a political view of “constitutional” Unionism where they did not want Maryland to leave the Union but held the U.S. Constitution superior to the policies enacted by the federal government that violated its articles.  This placed many Marylanders at odds with the administration’s policies and were thus considered “sympathetic” to the Southern cause and were included within the labels of “Southern sympathizers” and “secessionists.”  The majority of the Maryland Legislature, specific newspaper editors and many Marylanders inappropriately fell into this group of the “disloyal.”  

The Lincoln administration viewed the protests of Maryland’s Legislature as more powerful than all the men and arms Maryland could have mustered, even if Maryland had not been disarmed.  By September 1861, Maryland had been disarmed as federal forces, with the cooperation of Governor Hicks, had aggressively confiscated state arms and deposited the same at Fort McHenry.  The state was overwhelmingly occupied by federal troops and Baltimore was strongly intimidated by the guns of Fort McHenry and those on Federal Hill trained upon her inhabitants.  By written instructions to his General, President Lincoln had already directed his military that if Maryland took arms against the United States, they were to “bombard their cities.”

It was not just the suppression of dissent that was desired, the administration wanted Maryland to be controlled by “unconditional” unionists that would fully support the war effort. The imprisonment of the Legislature eliminated “disloyal” members from public office or from influencing public opinion in Maryland.  Their imprisonment created vacancies that needed to be filled and their imprisonment was a strong deterrent against anyone maintaining a dissenting political view from running for elected positions in Maryland.  

Historians never understood why the Baltimore Police Commissioners had been imprisoned on the personal orders of Secretary Simon Cameron.   The commissioners had protected the 6th Massachusetts during the Baltimore riots on April 19 and provided security to thousands of federal troops afterwards right until their removal from office.  It now becomes clear that their removal was due to an important function that had been assigned to them by the Maryland Legislature – to conduct the elections in Baltimore.  The federal provost marshal appointed to replace the commissioners was tasked to oversee not just Baltimore’s police, but the city’s elections as well.  With this appointment, the city’s police and 120 election judges quit in protest and were subsequently replaced by men of the provost marshal’s choosing.  Baltimore accounted for one-third of the voting population of Maryland and the November election was for half of the state’s Senate, all of the House Delegates and the governorship of Maryland. 

With the elections of Baltimore under federal control and with election judges appointed by the provost marshal, a policy was implemented to ensure the “disloyal” were discouraged from voting.  During the morning of the statewide election, a large number of arrests were made of the voters who attempted to vote a disloyal ticket or who showed any indication of disloyalty.   The police station’s jails were filled to capacity and word quickly spread throughout the city keeping all who desired to vote any ticket other than the “unconditional” union ticket away from the polls.  With the voter intimidation, almost all positions, including the governorship of Maryland, went to “unconditional” unionists. 

The manipulation of the Maryland elections would not have been possible with a legislative body and a free press willing to report and publicize these violations of democracy to the American public and the world.  The Maryland Legislature and the free press became victims to the “necessity” that only voices supporting the war effort would be heard and only “unconditional” unionists would dominate the Maryland government.  

The suspension of constitutional liberties quickly expanded north and ultimately over 14,000 civilians were imprisoned, three hundred newspapers suppressed, and all remaining newspapers were highly intimidated and censored.  Without a free press or the ability for Americans to voice dissent, the government became more brazen in manipulating elections of the border states.  During the Maryland elections of 1863, voters had to pass through an armed gauntlet of soldiers while holding color-coded tickets that revealed which party they were supporting.  

Many were denied their right to vote, and some were beaten and physically removed from the polls. Election judges who dared to protest the interference were arrested, and non-resident Union soldiers voted freely. Even the “unconditional” Unionists who were now governing the state of Maryland were aghast and protested against the violations of Maryland’s democracy.   

“Fake news,” a divided Nation, election fraud, the overreach of presidential power, and the desire to imprison political opponents, is not new to our modern times.  Considering the challenges we see to our democracy today, we now more than ever, need to heed the lessons of Civil War Maryland – When Democracy Fell. 

Paul Callahan is a native of Talbot County Maryland, a graduate of the Catholic University of America and a former Marine Corps officer. When Democracy Fell is due for release on October 3, at all major retailers to include Amazon. Image of prisoners courtesy of “The Local History Channel.”

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

From and Fuller: Shutdown Blues, McCarthy’s Fate, and Trump Poll Numbers

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Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

This week, From and Fuller discuss the growing anticipation of a federal government shutdown at the end of the month and the major financial and political consequences for no debt ceiling compromise. Al and Craig also discuss Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s political fate in its aftermath and Donald Trump’s poll numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire.

This video podcast is approximately 22 minutes in length.

To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:


Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Annie’s Story by Angela Rieck

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Many of my readers have read (perhaps ad nauseum?) about my dog, Gus. But I have another dog, whose story I have kept quiet to spare my readers…this week I am going to tell it.

Annie at 16Annie is a beautiful white cockapoo who was rescued from a puppy mill. She is probably 16 now, although the vet says that she is the healthiest 7 year old dog he has ever seen. She has a few cataracts and hearing loss (which has always been selective); but she loves to be by my side or watch Annie TV (watching the birds, squirrels, and bunnies run around the yard). She has a “nails on the chalkboard” bark when a dog or a person approaches. It is a fearful howl designed to keep everything away.

Annie is not a normal dog, nor is she a normal rescue dog. She never will be, but she fits into my household just fine. She lives a happy life, she loves squeaky toys, being petted, bouncing around the house joyfully, and Gus. But when people come, she barks and hides; only after watching Gus get affection does she try to approach visitors.

She is an anxious dog who is frightened by novelty and rain. She is terrified of people walking or in a standing position. If someone is seated, and Gus has demonstrated that person is “safe,” she will walk to that person in reverse and allow that person to pet her backside (as long as she doesn’t have to see the person). She longs for love and affection but is fearful of receiving it. The images from her puppyhood are never far from her present.

Annie came to me through a rescue organization in NJ that I volunteered for. All of the other rescue groups passed on Annie because she was essentially feral. I reluctantly agreed to take her, I already had four dogs (two of my own and two from an elderly friend who passed away) and a busy life; but I was the only real option. The other fosters were taking 8-10 dogs and we knew that Annie was going to need more attention than they could give.

Annie was born in a puppy mill to a puppy mill mother who was so psychologically damaged that she couldn’t teach Annie the basics. Unfortunately for Annie, she was a beautiful, a white cockapoo with big brown eyes. She was larger than most dogs and the puppy miller knew that she would produce a lot of very saleable babies. She was sold to another puppy mill. She fetched a good price.

Annie’s new home was the back of tractor trailer stuffed with dogs in cages. It had no electricity, light, air conditioning, or heat. In this dark, filthy, deafening home she lived on the top cage, there were two cages below her. The dogs barked incessantly, trying to alert someone, anyone, to their plight. Annie stayed in the back of her crate and trembled. There were no trays underneath the cages, allowing the poo and pee from the dogs in the above crates to rain down on dogs in the lower crates. Her feet are splayed from never being able to stand on a solid surface. After three heats, she was still too traumatized to mate, so she was moved to the bottom crate and food was withheld to punish her. When she was covered with feces and urine, she was yanked out and hosed down no matter the weather. Since she was a nonshed, her fur would eventually become completely matted.

A courageous organization goes to puppy mills and talks them out of their dogs. In puppy mills, females are typically killed after six years (because they produce fewer puppies) and males are killed after 10 years. These brave rescuers convinced the puppy miller to let them have Annie, because Annie would never produce those “beautiful babies.”

Annie arrived with severely matted fur all over her body, her eyes were matted shut, she was unable to move, and her butt was so matted she could not poop. Our organization took her, vetted her, shaved her down; took care of her physical needs. It is the volunteer’s job to work on emotional needs.

One of the reasons that I was reluctant to take Annie was that we have an unwritten rule in fostering, if the dogs can’t be rehabilitated, they become ours.

Annie had a long way to go. She was at 60% of her body weight and feral. She bit vigorously and continuously. When she was not attacking, she was running and hiding, always trying to escape. She was terrified of humans, dogs, the outdoors (which she had never seen), and the world in general. Grass was scary, bunnies and birds, everything was there to hurt her. When I took her home in the backseat of the car, fluids came out of every orifice. After I put her in the house, I got distracted and made a cardinal error; I took her leash off. It took me an hour to catch her; she bit me more than 20 times.

I worked with her slowly, but her formative years had taken their toll. She never learned cause and effect. She learned that no matter what she did, her life would be one of abuse and neglect. Even her crate was terrifying. It was the scene of her tortured life. Not understanding cause and effect makes it difficult to housetrain and teach a dog to live in a home.

It was hard to get her to eat quality food. She ate boiled potatoes (a staple in puppy mills), but it took weeks to get her to eat meat and other foods that are natural to animals. Her instincts had left her, replaced by terror.

After a couple of months, she could have been adopted to a very dog experienced and understanding home. There was an adopter who desperately wanted to take her and after a month, our leader relented. I explained for 2 hours how to care for Annie.

When the new owner returned to her home, it took her less than 15 minutes to ignore my instructions. Annie escaped into 950 acres of watershed, filled with bears, foxes, and an occasional coyote. We put up posters warning people not to go near her and call us if they saw her. Eventually when dogs get hungry, they will circle back to where they escaped. Eleven days after she took off we were able to trap her; but she was never going to be placed up for adoption again.

But here was the surprise, we expected her to return to being feral. But as soon as she saw me, she wagged her tail. She had bonded with a human. We had suspected that she would have attachment disorder; but despite her previous abuse, she was willing to bond cautiously to a human.

It has not been the easiest of journeys. It took six years to housetrain her. She may never understand the cause/effect linkages and food is not a motivator. She is suspicious of every treat, food, and toy. She is not a normal dog, she cannot understand my needs, so frozen in her past trauma. If I am not there, her fears take over. It was hard to travel, if I boarded her, she just shivered in the back of the crate. I was her touchstone. If I was there, everything was okay if I was not, nothing was okay.

After my other dogs passed away, I adopted Gus, and she bonded to him. He modeled how to connect with humans. She watched Gus reach out to strangers and she decided to try it. (She can still not face strangers, but she backs up to them to let them pet her back.) I was lucky enough to find a friend who is patient with her and Annie now is comfortable with her in my absence.

Annie had too sweet a disposition for what happened to her. Another dog may have been more resilient. But Annie was too trusting, too loving, and too kind for that treatment. Had she not had this early life, she would have been the best dog that anyone ever had.

Annie’s story is a typical puppy mill parent story. Some millers keep their dogs in pens in barns, which is a little more humane than crates, but the indifference is the same. If you are not sure if your dog is from a puppy mill, click on the link below to see the signs. (You can assume that all puppy stores and most puppies available on the internet are from a puppy mill.) And if you did accidentally buy your puppy from a puppy mill, consider donating to a rescue organization.

https://www.zoetispetcare.com/blog/article/how-identify-puppy-mill

But this story is not about puppy mills. It is about Annie’s journey. How she went from a fearful, feral dog, to a loving, sweet, happy, gal. How she never gave up. She taught me how animals and people who are abused in their youth bear permanent scars and how fragile trust can be.

She also taught me about resiliency. The Annie that I first met had no prospect of a happy life. She could only see terror and pain. But she was willing to open up to another world.

After caring for Annie, I now understand the permanent scars that remain after childhood abuse, especially sexual abuse by trusted institutions such as the Catholic church and the Boy Scouts. But Annie’s resiliency is in everyone, and most of these victims have been able to recover. Yet those scars remain and can re-emerge at any time. The path may be long, hard, and painful, but their ability to move past their past makes them an inspiration to all of us.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Letter to Editor: Shore Regional Health and the Future of the Current Hospital Site

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Our community can be forgiven for being skeptical about Shore Regional Health’s latest timeline for construction of the regional medical center having heard encouraging prognostications for many years. 

One wonders if this is the case now. While the 2025 start of construction date was reported in the September 20th Star-Democrat, LuAnn Brady, the new COO of Shore Regional Health and responsible for managing construction of the medical center, stated at a July 22nd public meeting co-sponsored by the Democratic Women’s Club and the AAUW, that construction wouldn’t begin until 2028.

Without an independent source of information on the situation, scapegoating the certificate of need process for delays is easy because the process is arcane and even well-meaning board members can fail to understand what’s occurring.  A community needs a mayor or other elected officials who will advocate with outside decision makers and provide that independent source of information.

Working as a Certificate of Need analyst for four years in Boston’s high powered health care environment, it was usual to see communities and their elected officials organize to insistently advocate for community health care needs when local hospital’s arrangements with establishment behemoths were at issue. 

Even locally, we can recall the intense community organizing that occurred around the Chestertown Hospital, in which Chestertown’s mayor and councilmen played a part advocating for community needs before Shore Regional Health.

The future of the current hospital site is the present challenge.  There is a clear need for Easton’s elected officials to inform and advocate for the community when it comes to the use of the substantial real estate of the current hospital site.  Our elected officials should organize an independent public process so that interested parties in Easton can know what’s going on and express the needs of the town.

That the elected officials have initiated a public process for community input regarding the current hospital site would be reassuring to prospective donors to the capital campaign. If the 2025 start of construction is to be believed, there’s no time like the present.

Holly Wright
Easton

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

More Empathy Would Make America a Better Place by J.E. Dean

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Earlier this month, I couldn’t help but notice the number of trucks that passed by transporting riding lawnmowers. There were dozens of them, each one with two or three mowers, all heading out to spend a half hour or, in the case of larger yards, much longer, in the sweltering heat. Call me selfish, but one of my passing thoughts was, “I’m glad I don’t have to work in this heat.”  Another thought was to wonder why those of us fortunate enough not to have to do manual labor don’t have more empathy for those who do.

The American economy inadequately rewards those who do hard physical, often debilitating work. Those of us who “labored” in offices for years in some ways, don’t know what work is. I recall an incident many years ago where my son was with me at work. He watched me talking on the phone and banging away at a computer keyboard and asked, “Daddy, is this what you do all day?  Why don’t you have to work?”

I have no apologies for my career as a white-collar worker, but my son had a point. Today, retired from full-time work, I am young compared to many other people my age who “worked for a living.”  I think those people deserve our empathy.  Unfortunately, all too often they don’t get it. And that absence of empathy is reflected in today’s political divide and an economy where the rich are getting richer at the expense of people who do much of the work that makes our standard of living possible. 

American politics would smell better if some of the class-based acrimonies were replaced with empathy.  If that happened, a high priority might be placed on addressing income inequality.  Efforts to call things like affirmative action “reverse racism” might be viewed differently.  If you recognize income inequality and classism, which might be described as denigration of those who don’t have as much money or education as you do, you want to address income inequality as fast as possible.  You quit seeing it as “sour grapes” on the part of those struggling to make ends meet and start seeing income inequality as a moral issue.

Empathy is not the product of reading economic treatises, at least for most of us. Instead, it only appears in a genuine form as a result of beliefs.  If you believe all humans are created equal, you should be empathetic to others, including people who don’t look like you, immigrants (legal and illegal), people with disabilities, and people who are just different than you are in terms of gender, sex, and self-identification. 

Churches, schools, politicians, and other moral leaders should try to wake up “the empathy gene” in all of us.  Our consciousness of the importance of empathy must be raised.  And dare I say, all of us should be taught to expect empathy from others.

While empathy is a moral imperative, it also is a prerequisite for a democratic society.  Without empathy, politics can become a grab bag, with all of us trying to use the political system to maximize our own benefits at the expense of others.  It is the national deficit in empathy that, in my view, might have brought us to where we are today in politics:  A world of identity politics (race vs. race, class vs. class, etc.) and incredible callousness to others (For example, Texas Governor Abbott putting barriers in the Rio Grande River that can result in illegal immigrants drowning.)

As I look at the troubling future of the 2024 Congressional and Presidential elections, I want to support candidates who display a modicum of empathy.  That rules out greed-obsessed Trump and those who imitate him.  But it doesn’t necessarily mean that all Democrats are good, and Republicans are bad.  Legislators and leaders in both parties have work to do.

Has anyone developed an “empathy index” that might be used to help us determine whether we are empathetic?  I haven’t seen one, but I have seen websites intended to help us understand what empathy is. Some attributes of empathy which we can all adopt include being a good listener, thinking about what others feel, understanding other points of view, and showing compassion. That’s a good start. 

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and other subjects. 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

The National Scandal by Al Sikes

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West Virginia University (WVU), uncomfortably, has given us a sneak preview of what America has in its future.

A Wall Street Journal story on cuts to the University’s offerings reported that, “Dozens of faculty, students and alums, as well as a Morgantown, W.Va., city councilman, addressed the board Thursday during a three-hour public comment period, aiming to halt the remaining cuts.” 

“Many speakers, their voices trembling with emotion or rising in anger, donned red shirts and bandannas in a nod to the labor movement and solidarity with the faculty. Some spoke of the opportunities West Virginia University provided them as low-income, first-generation college students. Others expressed concern that future graduates will struggle in the workplace without access to programs like Arabic language or public administration, and that the cuts would lead to an exodus of talent from the state.” 

“This is a school and not a business, and these proposals that rip educational opportunities from students, and jobs from faculty and staff, will only weaken this institution,” said Christian Rowe, a graduate student in history. He said that cuts would make structural issues worse, and students would be deterred by “WVU’s lack of course offerings and respect for its community’s voices.”

“This is a school and not a business…” Every organization that has financial needs will be measured by money in, money out. If WVU cannot meet revenue needs then it has to reduce costs. Or, increase tuition or fees. Unlike our national government, West Virgina does not have a perpetual credit card.

But then if perpetual is definitional neither does the United States. It is this fact which frames the annual fiscal face-off over budgets and appropriations. A face-off that looks increasingly rabid.

America is not invulnerable. As our debt goes up our credit risk goes up and with it the cost of borrowing—a debilitating circle. Do we want more taxes? Higher rates? And if you say tax wealth then what will the rate have to be to catch up and combined with other taxes produce a balance? And crucially, how do you keep wealth from seeking more advantageous tax jurisdictions?

Or, do we want less of government and if so, what should we cut? And ultimately how much debt are we comfortable passing on to our children and grandchildren?

Right now, politics is mostly being fought along tribal lines. Barely civilized language is the patois as we talk about Trump’s outrages and Biden’s age and infirmities. And, it is hard to have a civil conversation about public affairs.

What we should be doing is what WVU is being forced to do. Its leadership now must ask, what courses should be dropped? What majors should be eliminated? And what about spending on extracurricular activities? This parade of questions needs to march through our federal government’s budget. And through our election cycle with its debates and interviews.

Biden and Trump and the range of wannabes need to be asked. Do not give them the easy out of squabbling about our latest emotional outburst. Make them answer our questions. The hard ones! Because we are in the middle of a national scandal—an assault on our children and grandchildren. And circumstantially we are infantilizing those who have been elected to make decisions that will preserve and protect the union. We hope.

Meet the Press, Joe

Kristen Welker, the newly minted moderator of Meet the Press, began her first show last Sunday with a long interview of former President Donald Trump. While he physically shows a few more years, he sounds like 2016. He was engaged and has even upped his game as he talks through accusatory questions. He has certainly had a lot of practice. 

The takeaways from the interview were then discussed by a panel of three who said the expected. They noted inconsistencies, “falsehoods” and spent time talking about his ducking and dodging around whether abortion policy should be re-federalized. 

But this panel of worthies failed on the central takeaway. He was engaged. He spoke quickly. The Donald Trump I watched will not win my vote, but neither will President Joe Biden. Unfortunately, Joe Biden cannot engage in the political repartee that is a feature of Presidential politics. And, international diplomacy. In the last election Covid was the cover to stay at home. It is unlikely to be an acceptable excuse in 2024.

President Biden’s allies spend much of their time targeting Trump or the possibility of a third Party that they claim will siphon more votes away from the President. They don’t get it. If Joe Biden is the nominee, Donald Trump has a good chance to win a second term.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

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Glow by Jamie Kirkpatrick

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It’s all about the light; it always has been. Take last Saturday, for example: it was a gorgeous day; the temperature was delightful, half way between hot and chilly, almost no humidity. There was a gentle breeze across the cheek of the river and not a cloud in the sky or a care in the world. It was all too good to be true, and that’s when it hit me: it WAS too good to be true. Lovely as the day was, the light was flat. There was no contrast, no art, no texture to the light, no luminosity or glow, and boy-oh-boy, how I love glow!

Glow provides depth. Glow is a fleeting moment. Glow makes a memory. Glow is not fact; it is feeling, emotion, sensation. Glow radiates. Other qualities of light may play with our senses—shadows, for example—but glow makes its presence known gently. It doesn’t bang down the door; it taps us on the shoulder and whispers, “Look!”

Water sparkles. Stars twinkle. Candles flicker. Shoes might shine, but they never glow. Glow is ephemeral; it can be as tiny as the blink of a firefly’s tail light or as grand as a sunset. Glow is not a burning log on the fire; it is the ember in the grate. It’s an afterthought, a lingering reflection of glory.

Glow is a secret. It’s light within, radiating out. The masters of chiaroscuro knew how to render it, how to create luminosity in their works of art. They might use layers of transparent paint or glazes, or they would paint a hard edge around a face or an object to create a glowing effect, or they might even blur colors together to create an appearance of reflected light. The effect was stunning because it somehow captured all the light we could not see.

Glow is fire without flame. It is indirect, refracted light. The first time I saw Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” I was transfixed, not by the graceful interaction of the subjects, not by the table laden with fruit and wine, not even by the shaggy little dog on the lap of the woman who would later become Renoir’s wife. What caught my attention was the hand-rolled cigarette in the right hand of the man in the foreground; not the cigarette itself, but by the glowing ash at its tip. It was alive with light, warm to the touch, the very breath of life itself, the detail that made the painting come alive for me. It wasn’t more than a minuscule drop of paint from the artist’s finest brush, but, to me, it captured the holy glow of the entire universe.

Maybe we all live in the glow of details, a glow that captures something primeval in each of us and helps us remember how wonderful life can be. Cloudless, sunny days are truly gifts to treasure, and I am thankful for them. But the moments that truly stand out in my mind’s eye are the scenes that seem to glow, lit from within by some serene, divine light that surpasses all human understanding.

I think you know the ones I mean.

I’ll be right back.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer who lives in Chestertown. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine. His new novel “This Salted Soil,” a new children’s book, “The Ballad of Poochie McVay,” and two collections of essays (“Musing Right Along” and “I’ll Be Right Back”), are available on Amazon. Jamie’s website is Musingjamie.net.

 

 

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Planning Your Digital Death and Other Happy Thoughts by Hugh Panero

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It used to be easier to plan for your demise. All you needed was a will, a list of your significant bank account numbers and essential passwords, a safe deposit box to store it all, and someone you trust to manage things. Dying has become more complicated due to our expanded digital lives. 

Our digital life includes social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and smaller platforms like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit, and email services like Google. Since they are free and make their money on your data, dead or alive, they are okay with you living forever digitally. 

I recently got a LinkedIn message asking me to congratulate a friend on his 15th-year anniversary with his company. Unfortunately, he passed away several years prior. This cold, computer-generated notification made me sad and wonder how our digital presence should be handled post-mortem.

The first question is, “Do you care? I do. I’m the person who tidies up his hotel room before checking out. I do not like leaving a mess for anyone, let alone my loved ones, after heading off to the Elysium Fields, Valhalla, Heaven, or whatever afterlife will take me.    

Therefore, to make the lives of a grieving spouse or children less complicated you should create a Digital Life List and add it to the other practical information needed to handle your affairs. And provide some practical instructions on what you want to be done. This list should include usernames and passwords for your smartphone, tablet, computer, email, and social media accounts, among other crucial digital information. Your digital life may not be real but it will need to be handled.

The average individual in the US has seven social media accounts per person. Approximately 302 million people use social media networks, about 90 percent of the population – that’s a lot of people.

The over-65 crowd, which I am part of, uses social media the least among the key demographic age groups and is a less critical part of their lives compared to younger users. Deciding how to handle your digital legacy after death is a bigger issue for millennials, described as the first digitally-native generation.

Social media is twenty years old, and millennials have over two decades of sharing photographs, videos, and other personal information for millions to see, all stored in the cloud. In a recent CBS News report, Mitch Mitchell, Associate Counsel of Estate Planning at Trust and Will, said, “This stuff can outlive you in ways that tangible stuff may not.” 

Millennials are now getting married, having kids, and thinking about boring things like life insurance, wills, and other related matters. This is why Mitchell says millennials are also beginning to plan for what will happen to their digital legacy upon their death, even designating someone to control their social media.

According to Mitchell’s company estate planning study, “… three-quarters of millennials are naming a “Digital Executor” to decide what digital information should be kept or deleted. This sounds like a very depressing job. Imagine having to sift through, box up, and toss out your loved one’s physical property and then go through several terabytes of digital content ranging from Instagram wedding pictures to pictures of their favorite mocktail.

The study, which surveyed 20,000 millennials, reported that 29% were likelier than the older generations to want their emails, direct messages, and texts kept private from their family after death. Almost 40% want their social media accounts deleted, about 20% want them memorialized or preserved, and the rest “don’t care”. 

Upon the death of a loved one, social media platforms are efficient ways for family members to let people in mass know when a loved one has died, provide funeral arrangements, know where to send donations, and help insulate a grieving family from being besieged with well-meaning phone calls asking for such information. After a period of time, I would turn social media accounts off to avoid them being hacked and misused. 

Social media companies have policies regarding what happens when an account holder dies. Removing a loved one’s Facebook account requires the family member to provide documentation to confirm they are an immediate family member or executor of the account holder and to provide a death certificate. Facebook also provides an option to allow an account to be memorialized, a place where friends and family can gather and share memories after a person has passed away. The other social media companies have similar policies.

Facebook also allows you to designate a Legacy Contact, a person to take control of the account once the account holder has died. They can manage tribute posts and decide who can post and who can see and delete posts. Google also provides a similar option to assign an Inactive Account Manager. They are good things to set up now.

When I told a buddy about this article, he said he once went on a white water rafting trip with his wife, who managed his entire life. His wife had a harrowing moment on the rapids and was tossed from the raft and submerged under the water for what seemed a long time. Later that evening, she asked her husband, “Were you anxious seeing me in mortal danger?” He responded, “Yes, I don’t have any of your passwords.”

Your Digital Life List must include usernames and passwords for all your digital hardware to help family members cancel social media accounts and other premium subscription accounts quicker by appearing as if the account holder was doing it. This includes digital premium streaming services, apps, and cloud storage subscriptions, among others. If these accounts are not shut down, the tech companies will keep pinging your credit card post-mortem until the account is deactivated or the credit card associated with it is canceled or expires. 

Family members need hardware passwords more than ever due to enhanced security features, such as double authentication, fingerprint ID, and facial recognition. For example, some online banking and other transactions involve sending a verification code to a smartphone or email address to confirm the person’s identity to complete the transaction. Therefore, if you don’t have access to your loved one’s email and smartphone you are in trouble. 

In the EU, it is much easier to delete your digital life, alive or deceased. There is a general regulatory data rule known as “the right to erasure,” sometimes called the “right to be forgotten.” All you have to do is write a letter to the company and ask that all your data be deleted. I am a big fan of being digitally forgotten because there are only a few people who will really care when I’m gone, and they will not need my digital presence to remember me. 

Hugh Panero, a tech & media entrepreneur, was the founder & former CEO of XM Satellite Radio. He has worked with leading tech venture capital firms and was an adjunct media professor at George Washington University. He writes about Tech and Media for the Spy.

 

 

 

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Tyranny of the Loud at Washington College … Now What? By David Reel

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With great shock and even greater sadness I read media accounts of protestors disrupting a recent presentation at Washington College in Chestertown.

The presentation featured Dr. Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. While Professor George has deeply held conservative beliefs which he does not shy away from expressing, he is also a frequent conversation partner with Cornel West, a progressive professor and political activist. They have appeared together at colleges and universities around the country, arguing for civil dialogue and a broad conception of campus freedom of speech as essential to the truth-seeking mission of academic institutions. Of his longtime friend West has said — “Robby and I struggle over many issues, but at the deepest human level, it’s hard to find anyone with his kind of integrity and genuine concern for others.” 

Progressive Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has said this about Professor George — “He is one of the nation’s most respected legal theorists and the respect he has gained is due to his sheer brilliance, the analytic power of his arguments, the range of his knowledge, a deeply principled conviction, and a profound and enduring integrity.”

No stranger to threats of bodily harm, Professor George was once targeted with death threats for views on abortion.

So how was Professor George treated during his presentation at Washington College? Extremely poorly is an understatement.

The protesters at his presentation did not quietly carry signs and engage in civil dialogue with Professor George following his remarks. Instead, media at the event reported the following: “The protesters marched in, with campus security allowing them passage. Shouting from the protesters started right away, breaking up the professor’s talk.” The media also reported the protesters waved flags, waved signs, blew whistles, played music, and danced. They did not stand down until Professor George’s presentation ended prematurely and he [George] was escorted from the room.

 After this shameful treatment Professor George observed that in all his years visiting numerous colleges and universities including Berkeley, Yale, and Harvard (hardly bastions of conservatism), he never had this happen before. After this event, he observed that “When intimidation works, they’ll continue to do it,”

 Indeed, they will. Intimidation at this event did work and there is no reason to believe the protestors will not do it again with anyone who does not embrace their views or asks them to consider other views.

 That being the case the following questions need to be addressed by the leadership of Washington College.

What has been or will be the college’s response to the protestors willful disregard for the following Washington College core values? “We share these values of our founding patron, George Washington: integrity, determination, curiosity, civility, leadership, and moral courage. We develop in our students’ habits of analytic thought and clear communication, aesthetic insight, ethical sensitivity, and civic responsibility.

What has been or will be the college’s response to the following comment by one protestor at the event after an email was sent to all students reminding them that it would be a violation of the Student Honor Code to disrupt a speaker? “Are you going to tell me that WAC (Washington College) can expel every single one of us? Absolutely (expletive) not!”.

Why did campus security decide not to intervene with timely and appropriate steps to deal with the protesters well before their disruptive behavior resulted in a premature end of the event?

Post event a college spokesperson said, “the protesters took issue with homophobic and transphobic statements that Professor George has made in the past.” Is the spokesperson implying that Washington College agrees with the protester’s interpretations of and opinions on statements made by Professor George in the past?

How committed is Washington College to free speech, civil discourse, and ensuring students are exposed to a wide range of views that may challenge how they think and what they think?

One can hope that going forward Washington College will walk their talk on their core principles and student honor code to help ensure this recent tyranny of the loud will never happen again.

David Reel is a public affairs/public relations consultant who serves as a trusted advisor on strategy, advocacy, and media matters who resides in Easton.

 

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The Weight of Love by Laura J. Oliver

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When I’m late for my workout with JT, like the day I was caught by a speed camera going one mile over the amount they let you legally speed just a mile from the gym, I walk in the door and accuse him of my own transgression, proclaiming, “You’re late! Where have you been?” just to mess with him. Or when I walk in to discover he’s just killing time waiting, staring at his phone, I’ll swing open the door and announce, “Oh, thank God she’s here!” just to make him laugh.

I was bummed when I arrived this week, feeling abandoned in all the ways you have to fix by yourself because no one is coming, and therefore I was grateful that the workout seemed distractingly difficult. He has this giant rubber ball thing that has been cut in half –like a pitcher’s mound loaded with springs. I eye it warily as he pulls it out. It’s difficult to balance on in the best of circumstances, but especially hard if you are trying not to see your sad face in the giant mirror. Not looking up at the mirror gives you no focus point for stability except the floor. But just as they taught you in driver’s ed that you will involuntarily drive towards the thing you are looking at—so don’t look at cars stopped on the shoulder of the road—turns out if you are looking at the floor, you topple to the floor. Which always makes JT roll his eyes and say, “What on earth was that?”

He routinely makes me use free weights on a slant bench, or flat on my back, or standing, hoisting them up and over my head. He reports there have been no skull fractures. He will catch me if I falter, if it really gets too hard, and I wish someone could just follow me around all day catching the weight of the world when it feels too heavy. 

I often look perplexed when JT explains the next heinous exercise I’m to perform and request that he continue to demonstrate. I gaze with furrowed brow and head cocked to the side until he figures it out and tosses me the weight or rope or cable.

Yesterday, he made me use these horrid things called medicine balls, which are deceptively labeled 10, 20, and 30 pounds but are really 100, 200, and 300 pounds. The original medicine balls were animal bladders full of sand used 3,000 years ago in ancient Persia to strengthen wrestlers. Hippocrates was a fan 2,000 years ago in ancient Greece, considering them an excellent tool for restoring mobility to the injured. Whatever they are made of now, they don’t bounce. They plop. Not a fangirl of the medicine ball.

You have to stand on the bouncy half mound, raise the ball over your head, and slam it to the ground, which requires teeter-squatting, then stand up without losing your balance to lift the ball all the way over your head to repeat the maneuver without careening off the half ball. And if you are good at it, the ball gets replaced with a heavier one. This seems backward, like so much in life. Why is the reward something worse? Or, as JT says, “more challenging?”

I try to picture someone I hate to slam the ball into, but I don’t hate anyone. I don’t even dislike anyone enough to throw a ball at them. This has been a historical disadvantage dating back to ancient sixth-grade dodge ball.

We are the only two people in the gym on Friday afternoons. Sometimes I go to the massive window overlooking Forest Drive and mouth, ‘Help.’ I also miscount just to mess with JT—looking directly in his eyes and whisper-counting “4, 5” when it’s really “2, 3,” but he’s never fooled. I admire this ability to see through my subterfuge enormously. 

I decided I need to add some variety to my exercise workout. By variety, I mean something like running. By running, I mean pounding a treadmill. I do run outside as well, but outside has hills and no air conditioning and brick sidewalks corrupted by massive tree roots.  

And people honk when you run outside. Not in a good way. I don’t know why they are honking. Do they know me? Should I wave?

I have told JT I am trying to love yoga to add it to my routine as well. I have the purest of motivations—my best friend loves yoga, and the clothes are cute. Plus, my entire neighborhood is doing community yoga together once a month upstairs at a restaurant in town, and I want to make friends and drink wine together afterward. But it’s slow, and the music is bad. Seriously. Where’s the melody? Where’s the beat? Also, I don’t actually like to hear people breathe. Or to say things out loud together. 

Just once, a yoga teacher guided us through poses to James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend” by candlelight, and I lay on the floor and wept. Because you know it’s about a romantic love that has evolved to abiding love, which feels like a loss, a downgrade, but the music makes you want to believe that it is a holy transformation to a love better than that of which you are actually capable. 

For a moment, you know it is the way you’d like to love everyone, and it’s profound, holding you in that place between ego and egoless, between one-on-one love and one-to-everyone love. Between gone forever and world without end. 

I love so small and personal when I want to love so big and grand. But I do know you can’t be abandoned by a love that flows from the inside out. You can’t be abandoned by the love you give.

When I leave a workout, I look worse but feel better. Everyone does. I asked, and JT confirmed this. And since you drive towards the thing you are looking at, since you bring more to yourself of whatever you place your attention on, since what you point a finger at grows, I’m not thinking about feeling abandoned as I leave. I’m thinking that for an hour, I have lifted the weight of my heart against the pull of the earth and that laughter is stronger than gravity. 

Laura J. Oliver is an award-winning developmental book editor and writing coach, who has taught writing at the University of Maryland and St. John’s College. She is the author of The Story Within (Penguin Random House). Co-creator of The Writing Intensive at St. John’s College, she is the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Fiction, an Anne Arundel County Arts Council Literary Arts Award winner, a two-time Glimmer Train Short Fiction finalist, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her website can be found here.

 

 

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